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1300: Samoans, Fijians and Tongans merged with the older population.1777: Discovered by British Captain Cook.1800s: Whalers arrived in northern islands1837: British settlers arrived1850s: Protestant missionaries arrived1857: Hiram Bingam, a Protestant minister on Abiang, devised a written form of the language1886: British, German, and Americans traded with the islands. Some islanders were kidnapped and taken to Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii, and Central America as slaves. 1888: The islands were annexed by Great Britain with a view to laying the Pacific cable with Tabuaeran (then Fanning Island) as a relay station. That cable functioned between 1902 and 1963 except for a short period in 1914 when German naval forces landed at Fanning to cut the cable. 1892: The Gilbert and Ellice Islands became a British protectorate. Headquarters were in Tarawa.1880s: The Phoenix Islands were annexed by Britain1900: Banaba was annexed by Britain, and mining of phosphates began until the total island’s soil was removed. The total population of the islands dwindled to about 300.1915: The Gilbert and Ellice Islands became a British Crown Colony.1919: Kiritimati (Christmas) Atoll became a part of the colony.1935: The USA took over Howland and Baker islands 1937: The Phoenix Islands became a part of the British colony.1938: The United States claimed sovereignty over Kanton and Enderbury1939: The USA and Britain agreed to exercise joint control over the two islands for 50 years. 1941: Tarawa and others were occupied by Japan. All but one man in Banaba were massacred.1943: U.S. forces reclaimed the islands. Inhabitants of Banaba were moved to Rabi Island, Fiji because of land loss.1975: The Ellice Islands separated and became Tuvalu.1976: The LDS Church Education system started a program in Kiribati.1979: Kiribati became an independent Republic that remains part of the British Commonwealth.1984: LDS Church Membership was 500.